“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”

“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” was a phrase uttered by Tony Blair pretty early on in his time as Leader of the Labour Party. It was short, punchy sentences like this that symbolised the ‘sound-bite’ style of “New Labour’s New Man” as he took charge of the Party in 1995, followed by the country itself two years later.

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Many said that Tony Blair’s speeches were just rhetoric, that were written just to grab headlines and held no real substance. In the intervening eleven years since Labour came to power, I have felt that socially there has been a definite shift in a direction that can at best be described as “not very good.” I would therefore agree that Tony’s words were just literally words on a piece of very expensive paper and they have never seen the actions that they were supposed too. I don’t speak as someone who has always voted for the other side, but as someone that believed in Tony Blair and voted for his vision.

Not only to I feel very let down, but since Tony Blair disappeared to write his memoirs and count his money, Gordon Brown as done nothing to give me much in the way of hope for the future.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought we elected Governments to take tough decisions during the bad times to make things better and generally sort stuff out. If I’m correct, then I have to say that they are not getting it right at all when it comes to sorting out crime, especially knife crime committed by young people.

I accept that we can never totally eradicate crime as there will always be people who will want to, for reasons too numerous to list and too complex to understand easily, commit crime. My difficulty with everything I hear and read about crime and so-called punishment at the moment, is that rather than having strict laws and harsh penalties, we seem to have just wishy-washy nonsense instead.

Since the beginning of 2008, more than twenty youngsters have lost their lives as a result of knife crime on the streets of our Capital city. This is a statistic that truly shocks me and while it doesn’t put me off visiting London, it does make me a little nervous. However, what makes me more angry than nervous, is that should anything nasty happen, either to me or someone I care about, the chances of seeing justice being done are so remote as to barely register a single percentage point.

We have a justice system that seems content to pretty much let people off. Criminals are getting younger and their youth is allowing them to commit terrible crimes, because if they are caught, any prison sentence is more than likely to mean they will be released with their whole lives ahead of them.

We don’t need campaigns, snappy slogans or celebrities pretending to care if spending ten minutes at a press conference would help them increase their public profile. What we need a decent helping of logic. People need to respect authority and if they don’t, then they have to suffer the consequences. If a severe crime has been committed, then a severe punishment should be the result. Those who carry a knife should find themselves in prison for the next few years and if, God forbid, they used it, they should be inside for much, much longer.

To me, this is just commonsense, so either I’m the crazy one and the likes of Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, is the personification of a totally sensible person or we’re being run by cretins who are allowing us to be held to ransom by a bunch of kids.